Towards the end of 2007, I’d started to get the feeling that a lot of smart people were out there on the “interweb” making money (what appeared to be shit loads of the stuff) simply by making websites. I thought, hey, I can make websites, it’s easy! I’m a software engineer, so making the website, publishing it and doing all the SEO stuff should only take a few days – then I slap some ads on the thing and BINGO, the cash will come a’rolling in.

I read some more articles and decided to do a little experiment using techniques what I later learned to be called “black hat” (this basically means to use unethical methods of obtaining traffic – think of the bad guys in western movies, they always wore black hats – those bastards!). After earning 100 euros within a month of putting something up, I was left with the wad of cash I wanted but a seriously guilty conscious. Seriously, I felt bad for doing it and ended up taking down the “experiment” while saying to myself I was going to earn that cash using “white hat” (remember the westerns? The good guys always wore white hats) techniques.

So this is my story, my SEO story, the story of one man trying to make some money and make some headway in the world of SEO tips and tricks. I’m documenting my adventure in the hope that it helps someone somehow and that perhaps I can attract some more tips that’ll help me get that extra buck.

I started it all with a website I made that would hopefully pull in some punters: Sudokus. To be more specific, www.sudokuworld.be. I know what you’re thinking, the .be domain, what the hell is that? Well, there’s a reason behind it, actually 2:

I live in Belgium

I stupidly started making the site before I bought the .com domain, and didn’t want to throw my work away when I discovered that the domain was taken – this is my own stupidity.

So, I made the website, I made a Sudoku Generator/Solver (I did mention I was a Software engineer didn’t I? Yeah, these things are fun to us) and setup all the text ready for translation. The site had the Sudokus, had a few amusing features, a blog and all the bells and whistles – in short, it rocked Sudoku arse.